Worthing, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “The food is decent” (particularly the fish) and the “service friendly” at this driftwood-themed Thomas Heatherwick construction – “but what a location! The children can play outside on the beach while you wait for the grub to arrive, and then you can all stroll by the sea afterwards... just choose a sunny day!”.

“A favourite restaurant” (and one of GQ magazine’s Top 10 UK pubs) – this outpost of a much-liked and four-strong local chain, near the Hove seafront, is an “always-dependable” choice for its “brilliant food and service” (the latter consisting of gastroboozer fare plus fancier options like vegetarian tasting plates).

2021 Review: “Utterly consistent and fabulous” – chef Lee Williams “never lets you down” at his restaurant-with-rooms in a Regency house looking out over Arundel Castle. Its talking-point is the “beautiful gold-leaf ceiling” in the dining room, which was made in Florence in the sixteenth century. Local seafood is the star on a “delicious” menu (“especially when fresh lobster is in season”).

Launched in 2015 after a stellar career (Claridge’s, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, many a high-end Canadian hotel), Lee (& FOH wife Liz) Parsons’ small indie is a real local “favourite” that inspires many comments in our annual diners’ poll (booking is thus essential) focussing on “exquisite fresh ingredients whose combinations tantalise the tastebuds”. The “great-value set lunch” merits investigation, and “fish is the outstanding choice” as always.

“Exceptional food, wonderful service and great ambience” combine to provide an “amazing special-event evening” at MasterChef: The Professionals winner Steven Edwards’s conversion of a former Hove bank, now with a basement ‘speakeasy’ bar. There’s a selection of tasting menus: from five courses for £70 per person to nine courses for £120. “If Etch was in London, it would cost three times as much”, agree local fans of its “always interesting menus”. “A very good selection of English wines is a bonus”.

Eat “surrounded by bottles in this friendly and informal bistro”, which also doubles as a wine bar and shop. Reporters love the “inventive small-plates food and excellent wine list” – especially the set menu, which is “full of more adventurous things you might not normally order à la carte”.

Well established as “a real favourite” since launching in 2019, “what it does – modern British cooking in a relaxed bistro setting – it does brilliantly”, while “the wine list brings it a cut above many other locals. Rob (Maynard, co-founder with James & Faye Thomson) seems to find amazing different things to drink”. Top Menu Tip – “don’t miss out on side orders: blue cheese and leek gratin and pommes Anna are both amazing”.

This “charmingly higgledy-piggledy venue” may look like it springs from medieval times, but was in fact created in 1927, when a member of the Guinness brewing family commissioned it from an antiquarian and architect. Nowadays it sprawls over thirty acres leading to the coastline, replete with numerous houses and cottages offering accommodation, a hotel and spa, and a dining room with tapestry-hung walls, where diners can enjoy a solid menu based on Sussex produce.

This “little gem of a side-street restaurant, just up from the sea front” delivers “tastes that go Wow!”. The first in chef Ben McKellar & his wife Pamela’s successful local group, it has maintained “the same standards as ever” for more than 25 years now. Top Menu Tip – “there’s always a delicious soufflé for pudding!”.

With its “beautiful setting nestling under the South Downs” and “inventive, superbly presented dishes,” this “lovely thatched country pub” from Brighton’s Gingerman group is “well worth the trip inland from the coast”. The wine list is strong on local Sussex wines.

This “buzzy seafood restaurant on the seafront” with views over the skeletal West Pier features some “innovative cooking” and “fantastic sauces”, with whole fish cooked over fire a speciality. Some reporters consider it “a little pricey”, but “the lunchtime menu offers good value”.

This luxury hotel restaurant in a semi-ruined medieval castle (complete with portcullis) is part of the Andrew Brownsword group, and certainly makes for a “wonderfully romantic” destination. “The dining room is situated upstairs in the castle” – replete with a rare barrel-vaulted ceiling – so may not be good for the mobility-impaired, “but the staff are obliging” and the food “good” (if not exceptional).

“A proper meat restaurant!” – Razak Helalat’s popular destination (which has a London sibling near Tower Bridge) is known for its “perfectly done steaks” (although “if you don’t like your steak and red meat, you may feel a bit stuck”); and also wins praise for its “great and attentive service” too. Even those who feel it’s “very good”, though, can also feel it’s “expensive for what it is”.

Brighton success story the Black Rock group’s “packed” two-year-old is a “fun, open, casual restaurant” that doubles as a DJ-fuelled late-night hangout. The Middle Eastern small plates, “centred around wood-fired cooking”, can be “too much on the same theme”, but the majority verdict is that it’s still amongst “the best culinary experiences” in town. Italian fan? The empire (inc. The Salt Room, and The Coal Shed, now with a London spin-off) also spawned Italian haunt Tutto, in a former Brighton banking hall, in autumn 2022.

This “cracking hidden gem, tucked away in the Lanes” is “a bit of a Brighton institution now, and rightly so” – an “intimate and romantic” place where “the seafood is fresh, the dishes filling yet light and the service unobtrusive but friendly”. “It provides a great selection of crustacea and everything from mackerel to Dover sole”. There is now also a beachside offshoot in the Rotunda on Brighton’s Promenade.

GBM winner Michael Bremner’s open-kitchen Lanes joint has been one of Brighton’s most interesting culinary venues for years, and remains “sensational” thanks to tasting menus that are “full of surprises” (as much the veggie option as the carnivorous one). Add in “attentive service and a buzzing atmosphere” (“sitting at the pass is a fantastic experience”) and it’s “highly recommended” by its very many fans. (It’s priced for the evening taster menu, but you can also make a meal of individual small plates here for a much more modest cost).

“Every dish is packed with flavour” at this “crowd-pleasing”, modern British small plates venue from Pamela & Ben McKellar’s Gingerman group, with a “bright and friendly dining room above the bucolic Lanes of Brighton”: there’s a “really something for everyone”, backed up with “super-friendly service”.

2021 Review: “A shabby-chic bistro with pleasant staff and interesting small plates” – fish-centric – plus “natural wines to complement the seasonal organic food”.